I am reminded of this instance at a time when
Ron Sutter was leading the Flyers in scoring and then missed nearly two months.
www.nytimes.com
The National Hockey League announced yesterday that it would not suspend James Patrick of the Rangers for an incident involving the defenseman and Ron Sutter of the Flyers last Saturday night.
Sutter suffered a broken jaw in the third period of the game at the Spectrum when Patrick's stick caught him in the face. Patrick, who has maintained that his action was defensive and the resulting injury unfortunate, was assessed a minor penalty at the time for high-sticking.
''In my judgment, the resulting injury was accidental and there was no deliberate attempt to injure by Patrick,'' said Brian O'Neill, the N.H.L.'s executive vice president. O'Neill ruled that Patrick should have received a game misconduct penalty because the high-sticking had resulted in an injury. O'Neill assessed that penalty retroactively, which means that a subsequent similar offense by Patrick would result in an automatic one-game suspension.